Misfire

Gunsmith Cats #2

by Kenichi Sonoda

Renegade bomber Ken Taki re-emerges, but the only thing he's looking to blow up is his relationship with the syndicate. He wants to walk -- they'd rather see him carried out. Can the Cats get him out in one piece?

Collects Gunsmith Cats #7-10 & Gunsmith Cats: The Return of Gray #1-3.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Crime

184 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1997

About the author

Japanese Profile: 園田健一

Sonoda Kenichi is a Japanese manga artist and animation character designer.

Reviews

[Sean Newgent · Rating 3 out of 5]

As stated in my previous review this series is basically just an amalgamation of things dudes like cobbled together into a variably interesting series of misadventures. The characters of Minnie May and Rally are both likeable despite May being perhaps too oversexualized. Any excuse the artist/author has to get the duo out of their clothes is taken and it's honestly been so long since I've read 90's style manga where this kind of lewdness was more common place than it is nowadays (though the medium has always been hypersexualizing female characters and continues to do so). I'm sure modern readers who haven't been desensitized to sex and violence will find this way more offensive than I do.

In this collection, Rally and May fight, a home invasion is thwarted, a thief named Misty is introduced and there is some obvious sexual tension between Rally and she. There's also the return of Gray, a villain who had his arm blown off in the previous volume and now has a hook hand that he replaces with a giant sword and a harpoon because why not.

The attention to guns and cars is still there, the characters are all uniquely designed and the overall presentation is clean. The action jumps off the page. But despite that it's still pretty much a straight-to-VHS action film put in a manga format. Boobs, violence, just enough plot to facilitate said boobs and violence. It's entertaining but brainless.

[David Doel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I was reading my complete Gunsmith Cats collection a few months ago. I had to jump from volume 1 to volume 6 because I was missing volumes 2 through 5. I recently stumbled across volumes 2 through 4, so I'm reading them now. Reading them out of order is not recommended, but not catastrophic either.

I enjoyed volume 2 - a food mix of adventure and humor. On to volume 3.

[Bookworm Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art, the story, the ladies. Love love love

[Andre · Rating 1 out of 5]

Re-reading. Comments for the series. I remember liking these in the 90s as action mangas with cool guns and cars. I now find them to have the details of action movies without the meat of it, filled with clichés from mangas and movies, all "cool-looking" scenes with no story/character depth behind it. More free space on my shelves.

[BookLuva28 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great action packed adventure!